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Cardiol Therapeutics Inc. (TSX:CRDL), a biotechnology company developing proprietary formulations that will treat life-threatening diseases, was featured on BNN Bloomberg’s Market Call with Robert McWhirter. Cardiol uses CBD in its drug formulations due to CBDs anti-inflammatory properties, which could help reduce inflammation in human hearts. The company has teamed up with the University of Alberta to develop an encapsulation process that utilizes nanotechnology to enhance the compatibility of the drugs with the aqueous blood circulation, improve pharmacokinetics and increase drug concentration at the site of disease.
Cardiol also has a partnership with Noramco, a global leader in the manufacturing and supply of controlled drug substance APIs. Under its long-term, exclusive supply agreement, Cardiol will be able to manufacture and supply pure pharmaceutical CBD for Canada and Mexico. According to McWhirter, Cardiol believes that they will be able to produce one million grams of synthetic CBD within 2019, which will allow them to bypass provincial suppliers and licensed producers who are struggling to supply the Canadian cannabis market.
If Cardiol can produce one million grams of CBD and also negotiate supply agreements with Shoppers Drug Mart, for instance, McWhirter believes that the company will be able to meet their quota and start selling their drug formulation. He also thinks that Cardiol will be looking at establishing a US partner to capitalize on the hemp and CBD market there and meet the demand for cannabis-based therapies in both Canada and Mexico.
To view the full video, click here.
As investors continue to prioritize cannabis opportunities in the US, market watchers expect mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to play a role in the future for Canadian companies.
A consolidation trend has been expected in the Canadian cannabis space for some time now based on the size of the market compared to the number of operations in the country.
BioHarvest Sciences Inc. Unveils the Unique Polyphenolic Content of Its Upcoming Olive-Based Nutraceutical
The product will include polyphenols known to have significant health benefits.
BioHarvest Sciences Inc. (CSE: BHSC) (“BioHarvest” or the “Company”) has reached an important milestone in its development program of additional Nutraceuticals. The olive-based Nutraceutical product scheduled for market availability in the second half of 2022 will contain the following unique matrix of polyphenols: hydroxytyrosol, trosol, and verbascoside. These compounds are the major polyphenols in naturally grown olives and are responsible for the high antioxidant activity of olives and olive oil. Importantly, the BioHarvest olive-based Nutraceutical product will provide all the benefits of olives and olive oil with a low calorie count per serving.
Cresco Labs (CSE:CL) (OTCQX:CRLBF) (“Cresco” or the “Company”), one of the largest vertically integrated multistate cannabis operators in the United States, announced today that it will report financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31 st , 2020 on Thursday March 25 th , 2021 before the market opens.
The Company will host a conference call and webcast to discuss its financial results and provide investors with key business highlights on Thursday March 25 th , 2021 at 8:30am Eastern Time (7:30am Central Time).
Canopy Growth to Participate in BofA Securities Virtual Consumer & Retail Technology Conference on March 11, 2021
Canopy Growth Corporation (TSX: WEED) (NASDAQ: CGC) (“Canopy Growth” or “the Corporation”) announced today that EVP & CFO Mike Lee will be participating in a fireside chat at the BofA Securities Virtual Consumer & Retail Technology Conference on Thursday, March 11, 2021 at 9:30am ET .
Hill Street Beverage Company Inc. (TSXV: BEER) (“Hill Street” or the “Company”). The Company announces that further to its press release dated March 2, 2021, it has obtained TSX Venture Exchange approval to extend the closing date of its previously announced private placement of units (“Units”) until April 7, 2021. Each Unit is comprised of one (1) common share and one (1) warrant, exercisable for one common share at price of $0.11 per share, for a period of three (3) years from the date of Closing. The Company applied to extend the date of closing to allow a greater number of interested investors to participate.
For more information regarding the Company or the offering, please contact email@example.com, or


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Starbucks Suspends Use of Personal Cups In Response to Coronavirus Fears
Society's concerns over COVID-19, or coronavirus, have led to companies taking drastic measures to help prevent the spreading of germs.
Starbucks announced in a press release that as a response to growing concerns surrounding the coronavirus, they will be temporarily doing away with the use of personal reusable cups as well as taking all the steps advised by the Center for Disease Control to combat the spread of the virus within the company and to its customers before it even starts. They're in complete compliance with the CDC and health officials while taking all necessary precautions to ensure no germs are spread to employees nor customers.
Starbucks also stated that they're in constant contact with their global partners in an effort to stay educated and up-to-date on the status of the situation.
So, that means you'll have to go back to using the disposable cups they give you until health officials give the "all-clear".
To read the full press release, click HERE.

domain: news


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23rd January 2015 @ 01:24pm
It has been confirmed that Alexandra Shipp has been cast as young Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse
12th January 2015 @ 04:36am
Halle Berry emerged as a fashion star at the 2000 Golden Globes wearing a Valentino dress and has observers wondering who will be the fashion star at th ...
19th April 2013 @ 04:53pm
Olivier Martinez cannot wait for Halle Berry to give birth as he is looking forward to becoming a father


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The Commons trade and industry select committee is holding an inquiry into the future of manufacturing in Britain. Many would wager that the conclusions will not make happy reading.
Manufacturing in Britain is fighting an uphill battle. Not all of it all the time. But for most firms it is hard going. Manufacturing now accounts for less than 15% of the economy's output - about half the size of the business and financial services sector and similar to distribution, hotels and catering.
The decline is not absolute. Back in 1979, when Margaret Thatcher came to power, the manufacturing sector was 88.3% of the size it was in 2003. It is now 101.3% of the 2003 level. But if it had expanded at the same rate as the economy's long-term trend over the past 25 years, it would be more like 200%.
Employment has not fared well. Since Tony Blair took over at No 10 in 1997, British manufacturing has shed more than a million jobs, more than a quarter of the total. The EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, says the workforce could fall below 3 million this year.
The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply's export orders index fell a record 5.6 to 48.3 last month, below the 50 mark that divides expansion from contraction. But the EEF's quarterly survey released today suggests that after a weak 2005, manufacturing output is rising, boosted by a strong world economy and demand from the US and eurozone. The EEF says exports are in their best period for a decade and firms are planning to raise investment on the back of full order books.
British manufacturing has been most successful concentrating on niche, specialised products and services requiring a small but highly skilled workforce. The long decline in employment has created skills shortages in parts of the economy. Companies fighting for survival are more concerned with day-to-day orders than tomorrow's skills base. When MG Rover closed, Network Rail picked up 300 engineers from the stricken carmaker. The rail infrastructure company is training apprentices using VT Group, the shipbuilder, which has adapted to changing times by adding support services to its portfolio.
It is not all bad news. The British automotive industry has suffered a series of body blows - the latest, but not perhaps the last, being the planned closure of the Peugeot-Citroën car plant at Ryton in Coventry. Yet Britain is not intrinsically bad at making cars. Toyota's plant in Derbyshire and the Nissan plant in Sunderland are among the most efficient in Europe. One in every four cars produced by Ford uses an engine built at Bridgend in Wales or Dagenham in Essex. Ford is putting £1bn into its British engine operations to make cleaner, greener engines. Rolls-Royce is a leading maker of aero-engines.
But competition is becoming fiercer, especially when the value added is lower. More production is likely to be lost to lower-cost countries, such as China, India and Brazil. Some will service growth in those countries' domestic markets but there will be plenty of products destined for markets in Europe and the US.
Trade unions grumble about weak labour laws in Britain. They say firms looking to close a plant will pick a British one because it is quicker, easier and cheaper to do so than elsewhere in the EU. The counter-claim is that companies will invest in Britain because it is easier to disinvest if things go wrong.
Ministers in the select committee inquiry will look at what Britain should do about manufacturing and whether the relative erosion of an industrial base matters. Can service industries thrive without a manufacturing sector to service? The government's answer so far is macroeconomic stability, competitive markets and budgets for enterprise. Not everyone agrees.


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After witnessing the Dust Bowl’s impact on the Midwest, the founders of Lundberg Family Farms decided they needed to take care of the soil and treat it as a living organism when establishing the Sacramento Valley business in 1937.
“When they arrived here, they started to farm using cover crops that would produce nitrogen from the air, like a legume or vetch. They also would idle the ground. At that time, it was counter to the methodology of burning,” says Grant Lundberg, CEO of Lundberg Family Farms and grandson of one of the company’s four founders.
The organic rice pioneer continues to innovate, earning top honors for Ag Innovation last December at the 29th annual Regional Innovation Awards presented by Innovate North State.
Leading the organic movement
One major innovation at Lundberg Family Farms involved a decision in the 1960s to raise organic brown rice. While that might seem like an obvious choice given today’s marketplace, it was a pretty risky move at the time, Lundberg says.
“First of all, doing your own rice milling and linking directly to the consumer was counter to what growers were doing. So that was a different paradigm,” he says. “The other was brown rice. At that time all rice was milled white, or about 99.9 percent of it. The idea that you would leave the bran on, where a lot of the nutrients and vitamins are, was counter.”
The organic gardening publications produced by Robert Rodale and Rodale Press had a major influence on the Lundbergs. Management approached Rodale to talk about organic farming because they knew he would understand how to do it on a certain scale.
“They had a choice to make. At a time when everybody was growing large amounts of commodities and selling it to cooperatives, they decided they were doing something that was valuable and there were consumers who would appreciate it,” Lundberg says.
“It seems obvious now, but it was a 180-degree shift back then. People basically thought they lost their minds.”
Organic farming fit right into the company’s culture, following along the path set at the beginning in trying to take better care of the soil. While many decisions at Lundberg Family Farms seem to go in the opposite direction of competitors, they are based on core values.
“Those values serve as our compass, and as we’ve grown our consumers expect that of us,” Lundberg says.
The decision to move to organic farming was based both on philosophy and business improvement.
“It came out of this philosophical bent on how we wanted to take care of the land, which cascaded out of the Dust Bowl,” Lundberg says. “But we also wanted to find value in what we did and take care of our family. So both drivers were at play. And it made good business sense because we could differentiate ourselves.”
Lundberg Family Farms follows a model based on the Stage-Gate development process to manage projects and make decisions on what to pursue.
“It’s pretty widely used in the food industry, and a discipline we’ve internalized and worked with to move along our product,” Lundberg says.
The process has been helpful in answering questions such as:
- Why are we going to do this?
- Should this product move forward in the process?
- Have we done the research and understand the risks?
“We have a team process, including a couple of folks who work full time in different parts of product development,” Lundberg says. “We also have a food scientist and research scientists.”
It’s not just about product, but processes as well, because it’s an organic certified organization and needs to follow certain standards.
“We don’t use any chemicals. So to take care of weevils and grain bugs, we have to use a nonchemical process,” Lundberg says. “One of the challenges with businesses is how to solve given restraints. For us, the constraint is that we can’t use man-made chemicals in the storage process.”
Sanitation, temperature controls and product cleaning techniques are the main methods employed in place of chemicals.
“Really, the chemical process has only been developed since World War II. So it’s just understanding how to do it and innovating different techniques and methods,” Lundberg says.
Branding the business
It’s important for any company to establish its brand identity. For Lundberg Family Farms, its brand is associated with organic farming and family, the source of the values that led to the decision to go organic.
Lundberg says company executives didn’t predict back then that consumer demand for organic foods would grow to the extent it did.
“I don’t think there was this grand vision of the future. That is where our values helped guide us,” Lundberg says. “For us, it’s been a 30-year process at a minimum. Except for the really committed supporters, when we’re trying to push into new markets people weren’t aware of us.”
Management has always made decisions with succession and the next generation in mind, which Lundberg says is a powerful idea.
“We have to take care of the capital and ownership and bring them along with ideas, or we’ll never keep it together,” he says. “The family is very committed to that governance principle and respecting the needs of ownership, management, labor and land.”
Keeping the future in mind includes staying relevant to consumers, which is why Lundberg Family Farms is looking at new grains like quinoa and different beans that are growing in popularity.
“We want to make sure we understand where our retailers and consumers are going, and where it is OK for our brand to go out and deliver on,” Lundberg says. “We’ve taken on this quick cooking, entrée area that’s important to us. So we’ve invested in that and continue to innovate in those categories.”
Innovation has been part of the company’s culture from the very beginning and will always be important, Lundberg says.
“Our website has a page that gives our mission and values. Innovation is in our mission. There’s a rich history about us being innovators. But you can’t rest on that, you have to use it as a source of energy and drive for the future,” Lundberg says. ●
Learn more about Lundberg Family Farms:
How to reach: (530) 538-3500 or www.lundberg.com


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When Inggrie Wijaya Merriman says she wants to bring more Indonesian flavors to the U.S., it's a way of bringing her two homes together. The owner-operator of Tehku Tea Co., a Dublin tea shop and cafe, 55 S. High St., is a native of Indonesia and over her 11 years of running her store found herself making more and more trips home to visit farms and scout products.Read whole article via www.clevelandstar.com
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Punters Choose Pokémon – Bookies Bet It Will Be Biggest Release Of 2016
With the release date for the global craze, Pokémon Go, just around the corner, William Hill offer just 1/8 that it will be the most downloaded mobile game of 2016 – despite it having half a year’s worth of catching up to do on games released earlier this year.
It is odds on at 1/2 that it has a five star average rating after its first week of release in the UK.
“Pokémon Go looks set to be the game of the year and we are fully expecting hundreds of thousands of people if not millions to download it before the end of its first week,” said William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly. “If reviews from the US and Australia are to be believed as well, we are in for a five star game.”
When will Pokémon Go be released in the UK: 4/1 13th July; 5/2 14th July; 7/4 15th July; 7/4 16th July or later
App store rating of 5* after first week: 1/2 yes; 6/4 no
Pokémon Go to be the most downloaded iOS app of 2016: 1/8 yes; 9/2 no


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DHL Supply Chain “Non Food Retail” has installed an innovative logistics software solution from Paragon Software Systems that is set to deliver substantial annual savings while maintaining service excellence. The system optimises DHL’s routing and scheduling for its Staples office products operation based at Watford Gap. The software was up and running within eight weeks and is already producing significant benefits. With such rapid results, DHL says the software has already paid for itself.
“We are very pleased to report significant success with the Paragon software for our Staples account. The system was installed and operational in a short space of time thanks to Paragon’s support team and the benefits have been immediate,” says Craig Holmes, General Manager, DHL Non Food Retail. “Our target is to reduce our transportation costs by a six figure number in year one of using the software and then double it going forward.”
“The system will help us achieve these long-term savings by producing optimised daily plans with accurate routes and schedules that will provide savings on fuel and assets. This will also help us to ensure maximum use of our fleet capacity, giving us the flexibility to deal with up to 60 store deliveries per day across the UK, plus supplier returns and waste collections. This all adds up to tremendous savings for our customer while maintaining our current service levels,” he adds.
DHL selected the software to replace a legacy system, centralising planning at its Watford Gap national delivery network site. Planning is performed daily for multi-drop deliveries of six to 10 pallets per store. These fluctuating loads correspond to consumer demand. Paragon provides the flexibility and accuracy to enable DHL to quickly optimise delivery schedules and achieve a minimum 87 per cent load per vehicle – in essence allowing the company to maximise service, while keeping a tight rein on resources.
Staples is the world’s largest office products company offering a wide range of office products, including supplies, technology, furniture and business services. With £16 billion in sales, Staples serves businesses of all sizes and consumers in 27 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
DHL Supply Chain is the global market leader of the international express and logistics industry, specialising in providing innovative and customised solutions from a single source. The Supply Chain business unit provides warehousing and warehouse transport services as well as value-added solutions along the entire supply chain for customers from various sectors of industry.
Paragon Software Systems
Tel: 01306 732600


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The benefits of fruit and vegetables
Why parents must get their children to eat fruit and vegetables - and how to to it
The theme of this week’s National Food Awareness Week is Give me 5. We are being reminded that children, and indeed all of us, should eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. Making this point can easily sound like preaching, but its importance to your child’s health cannot be overestimated. A colleague was telling me that her six-year-old, Conor, hates vegetables and refuses to eat anything vaguely green or leafy. The only fruit he will eat is an apple, provided it is cut up and peeled.
He enjoyed pureed fruit and vegetables as a baby but from the moment he could hold his own spoon, things changed, his mother says. It got worse when he started school. He refused to eat anything that


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Motorola DEFY+by Mohemmed Elarby Web Designer,seo,Marketing,
Motorolas announcement of the DEFY+ comes the day after the surprising news that Google has agreed to buy Motorola for a staggering $12.5bn. Recommended Features
- Motorola DEFY+
- Motorola DEFY
Review on Motorola DEFY+Motorolas announcement of the DEFY+ comes the day after the surprising news that Google has agreed to buy Motorola for a staggering $12.5bn. And although the announcement of a single handset is not that important compared to a massive takeover like that, the DEFY+ is still quite an important handset.
The original Motorola DEFY was launched last year, and it was the first Motorola smartphone to make any serious inroads into the European market for some time. As with the DEFY+, the DEFYs almost unique selling proposition was that this was a ruggedised but fully-featured Android smartphone that appealed to those customers who found standard smartphones a bit too fragile.
Although the DEFY sold quite well, it had a couple of major weaknesses the processor was relatively slow at 800 MHz, and the operating system only went up to Android 2.2 rather than the latest Android 2.3. The new DEFY+ builds on the old handsets strong points and brings the DEFY line bang up to date.
The CPU is now a 1 GHz unit and Android 2.3 ships as standard, with makes the DEFY+ much more competitive under the hood. Motorola have also given the DEFY+ a much bigger battery, with a 1700 mAh cell fitted underneath giving up to 7.1 hours talktime and 16 days standby time. You can never have too much battery life with Android, so this is also a help.
Related to Motorola DEFY+
Motorola DEFY+ Review
PhoneArena reviews the Motorola DEFY+. Introduced at the end of last year, the original Motorola DEFY was a fun and compact Android model from the Schaumburg-based company. It managed to stand out fro
Created on Sep 11th 2012 03:40. Viewed 821 times.
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How influential is your digital footprint?
PeekYou, founded in 2006, helps answer that question by scanning "content from over sixty social sites, news sources, homepages and blog platforms," to identify an extensive record of a person's digital activity (similar to social media analysis service Klout).
Mashable touted the website in 2007, when the company added Google integration. "PeekYou makes people search worthwhile," Mashable wrote at the time.
Here's how the system works: Web users are given a "PeekScore," which ranks their internet importance from one to 10, based on social networking statistics, blog usage, number of friends or followers, and so on. The higher your PeekScore, the more digital value you hold. Currently, PeekYou has identified "over 250 million people as the authors of over 3 billion public URLs," according to a press release emailed to The Huffington Post.
Apple's co-founder and former CEO, the late Steve Jobs, consistently received a 10 out of 10 for his PeekScore, highlighting his obvious Internet status. As a "very small tribute to his legacy," the PeekYou team conducted a test in a "to see how the current Apple team stacked up in comparison, per PeekYou's website.
Check out the executive's scores in the gallery below. Is your personal score higher than any of these Apple employee's rankings? Let us know in the comments section, or tweet your score to us at [@HuffPostTech].


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TOP OFFERS! Get ready for Amazon Great Indian Festival and Flipkart Big Billion Days - What to expect and what to buy
The e-commerce giant will offer huge discounts on electronic gadgets and accessories, TV and appliances, laptops, clothing, footwear, books, home appliances, grocery and furniture unlike last year. Apart from big discount, the company also offers bank discounts during this sale.
Diwali 2019 is almost here and just like the last year, both the e-commerce giants, Flipkart and Amazon are hosting their respective sales. In this battle of biggies, the ultimate winners are always the customers as they get exciting deals and discounts on products all across categories. However, the biggest attraction of these online sales has emerged to be smartphones. Companies use these sales to introduce their new devices and reduce the price of already popular phones.
Amazon hosts the Great Indian Festival every year around this time, Flipkart is preparing to announce the Big Billion Days sale, which going by previous sales, could be held around September 21. The Flipkart will discounts on various products during the sale including smartphones. Additionally, customers can also avail no-cost EMI options. The e-commerce giant will offer huge discounts on electronic gadgets and accessories, TV and appliances, laptops, clothing, footwear, books, home appliances, grocery and furniture unlike last year. Apart from big discount, the company also offers bank discounts during this sale. Additionally, It also offers a discount on EMI transactions.
While the two e-commerce platforms have yet announced the dates and deals on gadgets, Amazon has a dedicated microsite for the sale where it is touting ‘Never Before Offers’ on smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy M30, OnePlus 7 Pro and the Xiaomi Mi A3.
The online retailer is also teasing some special new launches, exchange offers, no-cost EMI option and best deals on smartphones
Flipkart, on the other hand, has revealed some details about the Mobile Exchange Program, which is said to be something to look out for this during the upcoming Big Billion Days sale. As per Digit.in report, this year the e-commerce platform will consider all working phones will be in the exchange program, even if they have broken displays. The exchange value will also be based on the condition and the variant of a handset, instead of a pre-set fixed price. Additionally, Flipkart says it will also accept old smartphones that aren’t being considered under an exchange program by other online retailers. One can choose the ‘any other smartphone' option while opting for the exchange program, in case their device is not present in the list.
Both Amazon and Flipkart are once again preparing for the festive sale season in full momentum.
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NEW DELHI: The mad rush for diesel cars could see some moderation if the government goes ahead with its word to deregulate diesel prices, car companies said hours after the announcement made by the oil minister Veerappa Moily to free up the fuel from subsidy cushion. However, most companies said there will be "no change" in their investment plans towards diesel model launches or enhancement of engine capacity.
Lower price of diesel and widening price gap with petrol has seen diesel models take a leap in the passenger vehicle market despite petrol variants being priced cheaper. The higher fuel efficiency of diesel models also fuelled the demand and the share of petrol vehicles shrunk to below 50% of total sales for the first time last year.
Top makers like Maruti, Hyundai and Ford have announced investments to boost diesel engine capacity, something seen crucial to survive. Many models offering both the fuel options have diesel variants accounting for as much as 80% of sales. However, this trend will get arrested if diesel prices move up, officials said. "This move will certainly be helpful for petrol car models," R C Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki told TOI.
Bhargava said the rapid move towards diesel had already seen a slight moderation after oil companies raised the fuel's price by Rs 5 in September last year.
Bhargava, however, added that while seeing a minor correction in its growth rate, the share of diesel vehicles will not see any "drastic" downfall from their current levels. "Even if the prices go up as the government has said, the share of diesel will not certainly fall below 45%. Diesel will continue to enjoy its edge due to higher fuel efficiency and improved performance."
Anand Mahindra, chairman of utility vehicle (UV) maker Mahindra & Mahindra which gets 99% of its sales from diesel, termed the government's intent as a "bold and overdue step." Jnaneswar Sen, Sr VP (Sales & marketing) at Honda Cars India, said deregulation of diesel prices will end the "distortion" in the market, which was being created due to the subsidy extended to the fuel. "There was a distortion which happened due to the widening gap between the two fuels. If this gap comes down, then the market will move back towards petrol."
Honda, which saw a big pressure in its India volumes due to the absence of a diesel engine, is now padding up for its first launch with a sedan called 'Amaze'. Sen said there would be "no change" in the vehicle's launch plan (towards the second half of 2013) even with the de-regulation of diesel prices. M&M said demand for utility vehicles (UV) will continue to be strong even if diesel prices go up. "An increase in diesel price will have very little impact on UV and commercial vehicle demand but may slightly shift demand to petrol in the passenger car segment in the small and mid-range."
Pravin Shah, CEO of the company, said the UV segment will continue to see high demand. "It is wrong to assume that only cheaper diesel price was behind this. The basic characteristics of a diesel engine - high power and torque - as well as more products and changing lifestyles are the growth drivers. They will continue to be strong," Shah said.
, adding that the fuel's price should move up in a calibrated manner and not at one go. "If there is any drastic change, then surely it will impact the industry."


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Have you ever dreamed of being a local real estate tycoon? Well, now’s your chance to pass Go and collect $200.
“If you have not heard yet, we have a new game out,” Great Bend Community Coordinator Christina Hayes said. Great Bendopoly is the slick and polished board game that taps local attractions and businesses to create a gaming experience based on the classic fast-dealing property trading board game Monopoly.
“It was only made available to Wal-Mart, which is crazy,” she said. “As you know, during June Jaunt, I have created that Monopoly game where all the stores can actually ask community chest questions and we have fun facts about Great Bend and shoppers get stickers.”
She was actually looking to Monopoly to make the city’s own game where stores could purchase a spot. “But, someone got really smart and decided to utilize Google and they mass produced all these games.”
The product is really pretty accurate, Hayes said. But, it is very generic.
Dubbed “a fun game celebrating Great Bend, Kansas,” the full-size board is marked with streets, parks and other local attractions. Among other things, these include 10th Street, Broadway, Great Bend High School, the Arkansas River, the Sunflower Rod and Custom Association dragstrip, the Great Bend Sports Complex and Veterans Memorial Park.
The small, metal game tokens are also different than the namesake originals – a hand, shoe, pretzel, heart, dog and shield to mark a player’s spot on the board. There are the cards as well with a local twist, and windmills instead of railroads.
“They are about $20 and they are pretty cool,” she said. She stressed that nobody sold these spots, but there are five local businesses featured – Walnut Bowl, Up and Rolling Skate Center, The Page American Bistro, Maria’s Mexican Grill and Mitchell’s Bakery.
“That was all based off of Google searches,” she said.
Mind Sculpt Games’ owner Darcey Leach told Hayes it doesn’t make sense for her to sell it since she would have to buy and mark up the price in her business, But, “she was really excited that people might possibly be sitting around the table spending family time together and friend time together playing a board game,” Hayes said.
McPherson has its own game, and just about any city with a Super Wal-Mart has one as well, Hayes said. They are created and produced by Late for the Sky Production Company of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hayes said the city is going to start giving them away as promotional gifts.
Monopoly was first published by Parker Brothers in 1935 until that firm was eventually absorbed into Hasbro in 1991. The game is named after the economic concept of monopoly – the domination of a market by a single entity.
In the game, players roll two six-sided dice to move around the game board, buying and trading properties, and developing them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents, with the goal being to drive them into bankruptcy. Money can also be gained or lost through Chance and Community Chest cards, and tax squares; players can end up in jail, which they cannot move from until they have met one of several conditions.
In Great Bendoploy, the same basic rules apply, Hayes said. But, instead of landing in jail, players get stuck in a traffic jam and face a detour.


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Concha y Toro has launched a new marketing activation for its Diablo wine brand.
Activity includes the House of Diablo – an immersive event on November 9 that features a screening of new film The Exorcist: Believer. Consumers can win tickets to the event via on-pack promotions.
Further activity includes sponsorship of a new Sky Cinema Vodcast Cinema Dates, which is hosted by actor and writer Michael Spicer (best known for his The Room Next Door comedy shorts).
Senior brand manager for Diablo in the UK, Javiera Moller, said: “This is an incredibly exciting time for the brand. We see a huge opportunity for Diablo to be a modern, standout brand with meaning, and we’re putting major investment and creativity into making this happen.
“We want the House of Diablo event to be a key moment in the raft of activity designed to drive awareness and trial of the wines.”
Citing NIQ figures, Concha y Toro said the Diablo brand is now worth around £15 million in retail sales value.


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Samsung Galaxy S8 to feature standalone desktop mode: reports
05 January 2017
An image of the Galaxy S8, leaked a few days ago suggests that it might be powerful enough to have a standalone desktop mode of its own. When connected to an external monitor, users had an Android-based desktop.
According to commentators, the feature sounded familiar, as Windows had already tried it with Windows 10. However, Microsoft's Continuum failed to take off.
Meanwhile, Samsung had yet to confirm anything.
The feature would offer a Windows-like environment made entirely of Samsung's version of Android. The apps found on the Galaxy S8 would be able to take advantage of the bigger display, although this was only a concept. It was not clear though, whether Samsung would also offer Windows-like multitasking.
What was known was that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip that would go inside the Galaxy S8 would be far more powerful than its predecessor. The chip would even be able to run a full-fledged Windows 10 build and Win32 desktop apps, according to SamMobile, which, according to commentators, meant it should be able to support a desktop-like Android experience. It was up to Samsung to really go for it, according to commentators.
Addressing a group of journalists at CES yesterday, a top US Samsung executive said the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recalls had cost the company billions.
Tim Baxter, president and COO of Samsung Electronics America, acknowledging that 2016 had been a ''challenging year,'' said Samsung would very soon reveal the root cause behind the exploding phablet phones that led to two separate recalls before the devices were pulled from the market.
He said Samsung was reflecting and listening to third party experts ''to understand what happened, and to make sure it does not happen again.''


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May 31, 2015, Times of San Diego
San Diego’s growing collection of urban wineries are celebrating their craft over the next week, with special tastings Monday through Sunday.
There are over a dozen urban wineries in San Diego, buying grapes from the country and making wine in the city. The first Urban Wine Week is a celebration of the growing local industry.
Many of the wineries have special tastings throughout the week. Then on Thursday, the Headquarters at Seaport will host “Sip the City” from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The event will take place in the open-air courtyard, where attendees will sip wines from more than ten different San Diego urban wineries for just $10.
Guests will enjoy live entertainment, tastes from Venissimo Cheese and Dallmann Chocolates, and a photo booth set up inside the Headquarters’ historic jail cell block
Tickets are available at sdurbanwineries.com.
See article at timesofsandiego.com.


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To Infinity and Beyond: How India is writing its own Toy Story
Will India ever produce an iconic doll like the Barbie? Only time will tell. However, with new quality controls in place and measures to bring the Indian toy sector at par with international standards, the Indian toy industry is seeing a revival.
The latest government data shows that the import of toys came down by 70% in the last three years and the exports have jumped by 61.38%. This came after the government issued a Quality Control Order in 2020 through which toys were brought under compulsory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification. This brought down the number of Chinese toy manufacturing companies dominating the Indian market.
Speaking to News18, Yashwinder Singh Kohli, director of Dimpy Soft Toys, said: “Indian market has been traditionally dominated by Chinese products because they are cheaper. However, the new quality control measures have filtered out many products from China. In an episode of ‘Mann ki Baat’, our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, had asked manufacturers to rebrand the Indian Toy Story. He also emphasised on spreading Indian values and wisdom among children through our indigenous toys. Due to the push by the government in this direction, all manufacturers increased capacity of production and increased exports.”
Kohli added that since toy making is a labour-intensive industry, it creates employment for thousands of people. He said that though his company makes soft toys, it will eventually venture into manufacturing products based on Indian mythological characters.
Manu Gupta from Playgro Toys International Private Limited said that the government’s steps have provided a level playing field to everyone in a market where Chinese toys were over-subsidised.
“We now have eight toy manufacturing clusters in the country to boost the production of traditional toys. Indian manufacturing fraternity is learning how to make safe toys because of the Quality Control Order. These products match international standards that are accepted by most countries around the world.”
Talking about other developments in the sector, he added: “The National Action Plan on Toys, in which 15 ministries are involved, is going to help manufacturers in various aspects like production and marketing. The USP of India toys is that a large array of toys – wooden, plastic, electric etc. – will be available at competitive prices while meeting all safety standards.”
Earlier, toys manufactured by a few Chinese companies were blacklisted due to the presence of toxic, heavy metals like lead in them. They were also found to have sharp edges that do not meet the desired contour requirements.
Basic Custom Duty (BCD) on Toys-HS Code-9503 was increased from 20% to 60% in 2020. This measure made import of toys costlier and thus helped in increasing the production of traditional items.
Vasanth Tamilselvan, founder of Ariro wooden toys, said: “Anti-China sentiment in the last two years and the increase in duty have contributed to the sale of our toys made on Montessori principles. They are made from neem wood which is known to have anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. They do not cause the children any harm. Our toys are hand-made by artisans based in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and other states. We use vegetable dyes to add colour to our products. An increase in demand for these items will directly translate to more employment opportunities for our artisans.”
As for a replacement for Barbie, Gupta feels that India’s very own ‘Chhota Bheem’ has managed to carve out a dedicated following. As more and more toy clusters are developed, we can hope that more characters like him will jump international borders and become companions for children from different nationalities.
[The Blog was first published in News18 and is written by Kakoli Mukherjee who is a Chief Subeditor and has been a journalist for eight years.]
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Guitar Hero franchise unplugged
|NEWS - VIDEOGAME NEWS|
Activision Blizzard officially buries amateur rocker franchise...
In a somewhat surprising move, Activision Blizzard Publishing announced via press release on Wednesday that there will be no further Guitar Hero titles and that the company will cease publishing any and all copies of the various installments of said franchise effective this year.
The statement said, in part, that "due to continued declines in the music genre", Activision would be disbanding their Guitar Hero "business unit" in order to turn its focus on more profitable titles. Interestingly, this news comes on the heels of another Activision press release that revealed that 2010 was the company's most profitable in history, to the "tune" of a $1.4 billion profit.
Conceived and created by RedOctane and Harmonix in 2005, Guitar Hero was widely credited with reviving interest in the rock and roll genre among teens and twenty-somethings, a demographic increasingly attuned to rap, hip-hop, and country music's recent popular rebirth. This revival led to Guitar Hero and its competitor, Rock Band, becoming two of the most popular and sought-after console video games in the past several years. Concurrently, those artists featured on Guitar Hero often experienced large gains in album sales, most prominently Aerosmith, Van Halen, and Metallica. Unfortunately, the public's notoriously-short attention span and the associated decline in sales appears to have been more than Activision was willing to tolerate.
No news has been forthcoming from Rock Band distributor Electronic Arts regarding the future of its title, which now appears to have a monopoly of sorts in the 'amateur rock' genre. Fans of this particular niche will undoubtedly hope that future projects, in some shape or form, continue for years to come. Either way, perhaps the best way to pay tribute to the rise and fall of amateur rock's prominence is to fire up the console, strap on the guitar, and strum a few bars of an old classic; perhaps 'Paint it Black' by the Rolling Stones... or in this case, 'Paint it Red, Green, Yellow, Green, Blue, Green, Orange, Green, Blue, Green, Yellow, Green, Red, Green"...
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Carl Icahn is going to meet with Tim Cook on Monday, September 30 in NYC, according to CNBC (via Bloomberg Terminal).
Icahn recently bought a small stake in Apple. He’s been a loud advocate for the company to crank up its dividend.
We assume that’s what he and Cook are going to talk about. But, maybe Icahn has some thoughts on Apple TV, iWatches, and other breakthrough products.


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Samsung says only a relatively small percentage of the 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold to date suffer from a defect that can cause the battery to explode and catch fire. But the company has issued a voluntary recall and will either replace phones you send in with either a new, non-exploding version or a Galaxy S7 series phone.
Need another reason to consider taking Samsung up on its offer to replace your phone? Some airlines are prohibiting flyers from using Galaxy Note 7 phones while traveling, and the US Federal Aviation Administration has released a statement saying it “strongly advises” passengers not to turn on the phones while in flight and not to place them in checked baggage.
The good news is that Samsung has identified the manufacturing defect that caused some batteries to overheat, and according to Samsung’s Australian arm, new Galaxy Note 7 phones that are known not to have the defect will be available starting September 21st.
It’s likely that the new models will be in stock in other regions around the same time.
The updated versions will come in a box that has a round white sticker with a blue letter S in it… making it easy for customers to know at a glance if they’re getting a new model or one that might have been sitting on a store shelf since before the recall for some reason.


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We tend to write fondly about Backbone’s mobile gaming controller around these parts, but the recommendation has always come with one asterisk: to date, it’s really been meant mostly for iPhones. You could use a cable to make it work with other devices — but Android users, for example, haven’t been able to just pop their phone into the controller’s stretchy grips and start playing.
That’ll change soon. This week the company is starting to roll out its Android-focused model, swapping USB-C in place of the Lightning connectivity of the iPhone build.
The Android version will go for the same $99 as its iPhone equivalent — and while shipping times might shift as orders roll in, the company currently says orders placed now will arrive by Christmas.
If you were hoping for an Android-version of Backbone’s PlayStation Edition — the Sony-approved build that comes in white rather than black, swaps the A/B/X/Y buttons for the PS5’s triangle/X/square/circle glyphs and adds a PS logo on the back — it doesn’t seem to be an option so far.
The company is also rolling out an Android-friendly version of the controller’s companion app, which acts as an access hub for your Backbone-friendly games, voice chat with friends and allows you to record gameplay clips by tapping that orange button on the controller.


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Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
As Tim O’Donnell prepares to give Kona his first shot next weekend, he is doing so while also supporting a cause with Team Red, White, and Blue (RWB). Through Team RWB, Tim is raising awareness and support for wounded veterans as they reintegrate back into their communities.
This week, in conjunction with his Team RWB and thanks to sponsor, Profile Design, everyone has an opportunity to help Tim support Team RWB by bidding for an incredible piece of triathlon memorabilia: a brand new set of Profile Design Volna Carbon Aero Bars signed by 19 of the best triathletes in history. With signatures from the likes of Mark Allen, Dave Scott, Chrissie Wellington, Matt Reed, Mirinda Carfrae, Julie Dibens, to name a few, this is a true collector’s piece. All of the proceeds from this auction go directly to support the mission of Team RWB as they reach out to wounded veterans and communities by directly engaging them in meaningful, purposeful relationships that help the veteran heal and provide citizens with a real way to say thank you.
Bid on the aero bars below. The auction closes Oct. 10.


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Bugema University has issued a ban on mini -skirts, lip stick, ear rings.
Others include make up, sleeveless & open tops, colored nails, trousers and dresses above the knee line.
The University management issued a letter addressed to all female students of Bugema University both Boarders and day scholars, informing them not to come back next semester with the mentioned items.
According to the letter dated Dec 12, 2018, female students were warned that those who fall prey will face displinary committee for serious action.
It should be noted that President Idi Amin on June 5, 1972, signed a decree prohibiting the wearing of mini-dress in public.
The decree banned the wearing of mini-skirts, hot pants and maxi dress with a V-shaped split.
Women were prohibited from wearing a skirt or dress measuring more than three inches above the knee line.


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You don't hear a lot about the Huawei GX8, but it came out around the same time as the Honor 5X. It's a slightly tweaked and substantially more expensive phone at $350. It's on sale today at Best Buy for $120 off, bringing the price to $230 with free shipping. Read More
Last month Huawei launched the GX8 in America with a $350 price tag. With upper-mid tier specs, a fingerprint reader, and an all metal body that's not a bad price for what you are getting. Unfortunately for Huawei, there are a LOT of really good phones in the $300 dollar range and at $350 it's kinda hard to recommend it, especially considering the phone is currently running Android 5.1.
Fortunately, the price on the GX8 just dropped on Newegg by $50 to $300. On top of that, Newegg is throwing in a $50 gift card to sweeten the deal, dropping the effective price to $250. Read More
Huawei announced the GX8 back in September, and the device has thus far launched in a few European countries. Now, this phone is coming to America. Huawei expects to launch the GX8 here in the next few months. The pricing is currently set at $349.99. Read More


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MSC Cruises have revealed details of MSC Orchestra’s inaugural cruise season in South Africa, sailing roundtrip from Durban in the Indian Ocean between November, 2019 and April, 2020.
German cruise line TUI are homeporting Mein Schiff 5 in Dubai for the 2019/2020 cruise season, replacing Mein Schiff 4, which is cruising roundtrip from Dubai between November, 2018 and March, 2019.
AIDA Cruises’ second-largest ship AIDAprima, will be cruising roundtrip from Dubai for the second time during next year’s Arabian Gulf cruise season.
For the first time ever, eight cruise lines will be homeporting nine cruise ships in Dubai for the 2019/2020 winter cruise season that runs from November to March annually.
Silversea Cruises are offering a Cape Town to Accra cruise departure aboard their new Silver Cloud Expedition ship, and a cruise from Dubai to Mumbai aboard Silver Cloud as part of an […]
The number of cruise passengers boarding cruise ships in Dubai continues to grow, commensurate with the growing size of cruise ships homeporting in Dubai, with Costa Diadema the latest mega ship confirmed […]
Seabourn Cruise Line has released details of Sojourn’s 2020 World Cruise, a 146-night voyage from Miami to San Francisco that will once more make use of Cape Town as a key turnaround […]


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Zumiez is keeping its cool
Retailer gears up for its national Couch Tour 2008
Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, May 28, 2008
At Zumiez Inc. headquarters in Everett, the office is abuzz with employees getting ready for Couch Tour 2008.
The hype -- official slogan: "It's Killer!" -- is for a national mall tour that includes an amateur skate contest, performances by pro-skate teams and live music by local bands. The 12- stop tour is geared toward teenagers and begins in Puyallup on Saturday.
"It's grass-roots," founder and board Chairman Tom Campion said Wednesday. "It's giving back to them for shopping in our stores."
Staying cool among teens is one of Zumiez's biggest business strategies, even as foot traffic into stores falls in accordance with a national retail slump, executives said Wednesday at the company's annual shareholder meeting. Zumiez has been hit particularly hard in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida.
Chief Executive Richard Brooks said that the teen retailer is focusing on four strategies:
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Zumiez has about 4,500 employees nationwide, and the average age of its managers is 23. Employees who sell more than $100,000 worth of gear per year are treated to a snowboarding bash. The last one was in Keystone, Colo.
Zumiez headquarters are in the middle of straight-laced Boeing Co. supplier territory. Employees, including the front-desk receptionists, wear hoodie sweat shirts, jeans and flip-flops.
The third-annual shareholder meeting was held in a boardroom there Wednesday. The only people wearing sport coats at the shareholder meeting were the two auditors from Moss Adams LLP.
The company's 125,000- square-foot distribution warehouse sits behind the office space, which is filled with photos of teenagers acting goofily and having fun.
"If you look at the best retailers right now, they are focusing on the customer," said Matt Hyde, an executive vice president at REI who is on the Zumiez board. "People spend money on what they care about. But they drop off things they don't care about."
Brooks said that a bright side of the current economic environment is that it gives Zumiez leverage to negotiate better rates with its landlords. "We have a strong balance sheet," he said he tells mall landlords. "We're the people you should be betting on."
After the meeting, Brooks said that the retail cycle would remain tough until people adjust to higher gas prices and resume their old buying habits. "The one thing that hasn't changed is that teen kids want to look cool," he said.
Zumiez net sales for its first quarter, which ended May 3, grew 14 percent, but profit fell to $1.4 million and comparable store sales fell less than 1 percent.
Its main competitor, Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., suffered worse news in the first quarter -- sales fell while its net loss widened to $12 million.
Zumiez stock, which closed at $20.02 Wednesday, has traded as high as $53.99 in the past year.
Shareholder Alex Duncan said that the slumping share price doesn't bother him. He called founder Campion "a retail genius" and praised the way the company treats its employees.
Shareholder Trygve Anderson also was impressed. "I thought that the management has great insight into what they're doing. I really like the way they reward the people who work for them."


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TOKYO — Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. said Thursday it plans to shutter five of its small women's apparel brands in a move to boost the efficiency of its other businesses.
The corporate parent of Uniqlo said it has decided to discontinue the product lines as of early next year. The brands concerned, which include Zazie and Enraciné, are small lines targeting young Japanese women. Cabin, the division that manages the brands, will be merged into another Fast Retailing subsidiary: Link Theory Japan.
A Stella McCartney sketch of a custom dress made from protein-based silk in partnership with biotech lab Bolt Threads. The dress will be displayed at The Museum of Modern Art's upcoming design exhibition, "Items: Is Fashion Modern?"


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Secondo uno studio la produzione di carne potrebbe far risparmiare il 96% delle emissioni di gas serra e il 99% dell’uso della terra.
Source : The Guardian
I tried the world’s first no-kill, lab-grown chicken burger
Exclusive: At a ‘test restaurant’ in Israel, the meat is grown in vats behind a glass screen. Could it be a taste of the future?
A PhD in genetics might seem like an unusual requirement for the role of head chef. It makes more sense when the man running the kitchen is not just in charge of frying your chicken burger – he created the meat himself.
“This burger takes something between two to three days to grow,” says Tomer Halevy as he chops red onions, iceberg lettuce and avocado. He proceeds to batter what appears to be a strip of raw chicken before dipping it in breadcrumbs.
Halevy uses the word “grow” because chickens do not need to be slaughtered en masse to produce this type of meat. Cells taken from “source” chickens are cultured in a laboratory, creating potentially endless supplies of muscle and fat tissue. Some cells were removed from eggs, meaning the meat is from birds that were never even born.
The result is the signature dish of a new venture in Israel, the Chicken, the world’s first cultured meat restaurant experience. Still closed to the public owing to coronavirus restrictions, the eatery near Tel Aviv opened its doors to the Guardian for the first private visit by a journalist.
Advocates for the technology argue that if cultured meat can become affordable it will be revolutionary, and not just in its potential to end, or at least significantly cut back, the meat trade. Cultured meat requires no antibiotics or drugs.
Critically, one study suggested it could potentially be produced with 96% lower greenhouse gas emissions and 99% less land – although some animal rights activists argue it perpetuates an unhealthy obsession with eating animals.
At the Chicken, bottles of red wine line the walls, black stools surround circular tables, and the warm glow of hanging bulbs lights the restaurant. The entire back wall is made of glass. Behind it is the production facility where lab-coated scientists wander around between large metal vats. It is petri-dish-to-table service.
“The meat was made on the other side of the glass. That’s true local production of meat,” jokes Ido Savir, CEO of the restaurant’s parent company, SuperMeat.
The breaded patty is deep-fried in oil, before being placed on a sweet brioche bun, flavoured by wasabi and chilli mayonnaise, with a side of sweet potato chips. Similar to many chicken burgers, it breaks and flakes when pulled apart and is extremely tender. It tastes, at least to this reporter, like a chicken burger.
Halevy, who also holds the role of head of product at SuperMeat, explains that muscle cells naturally contract when they are grown, making the fibres that result in the flakes of the burger that you would expect.
While Halevy says he could make a recreation of a chicken breast – with longer fibres and a dryer, denser bite – one was not offered, and others in the industry have said a fillet is much harder to create outside the bird.
For now, like others in the nascent industry, the start-up is focused on minced chicken. It is aiming to sell to meat companies that often reprocess chicken anyway, for example, into patties and nuggets.
Unlike reared poultry, this meat is made bespoke. It can be significantly altered in the process, depending on how it is encouraged to grow (in any shape) and what it is used in the “feed” – the water, sugar, amino acid, protein and vitamin bath the meat grows in.
This can lead to surprising possibilities. “We can have something that is between a breast and a thigh,” says Halevy. Meat from animals that are endangered could be cultured without harming them, he adds.
Under the right conditions, every 12 hours the number of cells will double, Halevy says: “If you harvest half the meat on one day, you will get the same amount the next day.”
Similar to other patties, such as the McChicken, the burger is not just meat but heavily supplemented with other ingredients to add texture and flavour. Roughly 50% is plant-based proteins, with added seasonings.
And like the chicken it serves, the restaurant is not fully fledged. There is still no regulation around cultured meat in Israel, meaning SuperMeat cannot charge customers. However, it intends to invite members of the public to try its dishes, to create a buzz. A waiver agreeing to “voluntarily assume any and all risks” must also be signed.
Savir says the aim is to take cultured meat from a scientific “dream” to reality, adding he believes it will be one or two years before he can sell it.
“This is our platform to have the first engagement,” he says. As well as the public, potential clients from food companies wanting to expand into cultured meat will be invited.
The industry was given a significant boost this week when Singapore became the first state to approve the sale of cultured meat for a “chicken bites” product, which is made using similar techniques. The US-based company that makes the nuggets, Eat Just, said they would be selling to an unnamed restaurant in Singapore.
Savir says the production cost of his chicken burger is $35, which seems high but is dramatically less than it was a few years ago. In 2013, a Dutch pharmacologist, Mark Post, made history by eating the first lab-grown beef burger. It cost about £225,000.
SuperMeat anticipates cultivated meat will get cheaper as the industry grows, possibly reaching cost parity with farmed meat in six to seven years. Reducing the price of the “feed” is vital, Savir says, which accounts for about 70% of costs, similar to conventional meat.
Even if people were to reject it, cultured meat advocates say it could be used for other purposes. In the US, dogs and cats are estimated to eat around a quarter of all meat. Perhaps the biggest hurdle, however, is the “yuck” factor. For many, the idea of lab-grown flesh remains unenticing, or even blasphemous.
“We’re not interfering. We’re just doing it in a different way,” says Savir. “Ice made in a freezer is not interfering with God – it’s using technology to do it more efficiently.”


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Nokia’s new push email service, Nokia Messaging, is largely designed to work on newer phones and with specific carrier plans — but until July older E-series phone owners can test it free of charge.
Nokia launched the Messaging service — which can handle up to 10 separate email addresses — today, and outlined plans to make it available with specific carrier plans (in a similar fashion to current BlackBerry offerings). It will also be included with the new $979 E75 handset, which is being launched through all the major local providers (Telstra, 3, Vodafone and Optus/Virgin).
However, as the service is still in beta, owners of some earlier E-series and N-series phones can sign up to trial it via the site linked below. You’ll still be liable for any data charges, but the service itself won’t attract a fee until the beta finishes sometime around July. If you give it a whirl, let us know how it goes in the comments.


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BabyCenter: 91% of moms use social media
Three years ago, BabyCenter revealed data demonstrating that moms were becoming an online social force to be reckoned with; sought after by brands seeking endorsement and awareness. Today, moms are even more social than ever and many check their networks via mobile phone.
The online pregnancy and parenting website has just published its 2013 Social Mom Report which shows that moms' activity has increased further - 20% in the last three years. Moms' use of social media is higher than the general public across all the major social networks such as Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, and even Google+.
In fact, a whopping 91% of moms now use a social media network regularly and it is such an integral part of their lives that "if friends or family don't participate in social media, they are not as much a part of their lives". According to BabyCenter, moms will even check their various social networks before pouring the first coffee of the morning and are four times more likely to check their social networks via a smartphone (89%).
"Today's mom is the most influential and social consumer you'll meet. Before she clicks to buy, she's posted, pinned, tweeted, and shared," said Mike Fogarty, SVP and Global Publisher at BabyCenter.
Moms' social connectivity is great news for retailers. Social media is driving many of their purchases. Over half (59%) of moms buy a product because another mom recommended it on a parenting website, and 44% were influenced to purchase by a friend posting or liking a brand on a social network. Heavy social network users were found to be more likely to shop online for portable devices (91%), garden products (65%), baby supplies (63%), and clothing (61%).
Another major change from BabyCenter's 2010 research is the use of Pinterest, which had only just launched at the time of that report. Image-obsessed moms have enthusiastically embraced the visual social media platform and their use (61% have used Pinterest in the last six months) is nearly double that of the general population.
"For Mom, all social is visual and image-driven - a major difference since our last study," said Fogarty. "Just as television progressed from black and white to color - today's moms expect social media to be an incredibly visual experience."
Image via Shutterstock
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Whoever ends up as CEO of J.C. Penney may find themselves flying coach.
The fading retailer is selling its three corporate jets on the heels of former CEO Marvin Ellison departing for Lowe's. While J.C. Penney tries to find a new leader, the company last week disclosed it is putting its planes on the block and expects to receive about $20 million in cash from the sale.
The company's jets are a 2001 Gulfstream GIV-SP, a 2009 Gulfstream G450 and a 2010 Gulfstream G450, spokesman Joey Thomas told FierceCEO via email.
The retailer "is pursuing the sale of its corporate aircraft as part of an ongoing company effort to manage expenses across all aspects of the business," Thomas said. "The potential sales are an opportunity to further streamline operations by eliminating aviation-related ownership and maintenance costs."
However, before J.C. Penney is free and clear of the aircraft, it is taking an impairment charge of about $50 million in the second quarter, representing an expected loss from the divestiture.
The company expects the sale of the corporate aircraft to reduce annual operating expenses by between $5 million and $10 million, J.C. Penney said in a filing with securities regulators. The savings will come through reductions in depreciation, selling and general and administrative expenses.
Still, that’s not going to be much help for a company that is carrying $4.2 billion in total debt, according to its 2017 10-K.
A perk/necessity of the job
Like many big companies, J.C. Penney has corporate jets that its CEO and other senior executives use to travel for business and personal reasons. Some companies cap the cost of personal use, while for others it is unlimited. J.C. Penney reportedly put a cap on the use in the last couple of years.
But the retailer is pulling back as its sales have gone down. Once a titan in its industry, J.C. Penney and other so-called bricks and mortar retailers are struggling mightily.
Ellison left the department store on June 1 after being CEO for three years. His new spot at home improvement chain Lowe’s is a return to Ellison's roots. He had come to J.C. Penney from Home Depot and is well regarded in the retail industry.
J.C. Penney, meanwhile is left floundering, with its CEO leaving just a few days after the company reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter results.
The company has formed a search committee to look for a successor to Ellison. Thomas declined to discuss how the search is going.
Right now, through a board election, lead independent director Ronald Tysoe is serving as chairman, a spot Ellison also held. The board also created an Office of the CEO, which is made up of CFO Jeff Davis, Chief Customer Officer Joe McFarland, CIO and Chief Digital Officer Therace Risch and EVP of Supply Chain Mike Robbins.
The four executives will share equal responsibility for the company's day-to-day operations until a new CEO is appointed, the company said in a statement.


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Monday, January 11, 2010
The Associated Press is reporting a study that demonstrated that there are alarming percentages of the heavy metal Cadmium, which among other things causes cancer, in certain inexpensive children's jewelry (particularly charm bracelets). Some of the jewelry was sold at Wal-Mart and Claire's (a ubiquitous accessory chain here on the East Coast that many parents will be familiar with).
It seems that if its not one dangerous substance (lead) its another (cadmium). This underscores the importance of regulating consumer goods, especially children's toys and jewelry. Trying to compensate parents after the fact for the damages caused by exposure to carcinogens, while important, will never be as good as preventing the damage in the first place.


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MESA, Ariz – Atlis Motor Vehicles, a US-based electric vehicle technology ecosystem company and the first battery cell manufacturer to be fully owned and operated in the US, has unveiled its AC/DC charge handle and charging cable design. The cable has the ability to deliver up to 1.5MW of power and was successfully tested by the Atlis team, delivering over 1,000 volts and more than 1,200 amps of electric current while maintaining a temperature below 30 degrees Celsius.
The Atlis cable, similar in size to a typical 350 kW CCS, is designed to be more flexible and user-friendly, allowing for easier handling during charging. The company plans to open this standard to its peers in the medium and heavy-duty vehicle and e-mobility charging space.
“Building our own cable is the logical path forward for driving adoption across our intended market segment,” said Mark Hanchett, Founder and CEO of Atlis Motor Vehicles. “The cables available in the market today cannot deliver this amount of energy without overheating or being too heavy. Our team has developed a cable that remains cool to the touch while charging and a handle that is user-friendly and easy to maneuver.”
The amperage, or strength of the electric current, is a crucial factor in determining the charging time of a vehicle. The company believes that its cable design is a significant step in the implementation of a network of 1.5MW charging stations, which will play a crucial role in the acceleration of electrification of the work industry.


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Uber is possibly entering the loan business with the intention to offer new financial services to drivers. The ride-sharing company informed they are building a financial product that is expected to help Uber drivers deal with their finances. In order to understand its drivers’ needs, the firm conducted a survey about financial habits. This is according to a report released by Vox on September 6.
Uber Could Release New Financial Products
In the survey conducted among drivers, Uber asked them whether they have taken out a loan in the last three years and which is the amount they would request. Most of the options reported were for relatively small amounts of money: less than $100, between $100 and $250, between $250 and $500 and more than $500.
In 2016, the company tried a system that allowed drivers to request cash in advance. The pilot project was tested in California and Michigan. In addition to it, Uber is also offering co-branded cards with Visa.
Due to the new proposal made by Uber, there are several individuals and politicians that started criticizing the company. For example, Mostafa Maklad, an Uber driver in San Francisco said that Uber should increase their payments rather than giving loans to drivers. Moreover, he has also mentioned that he would not trust a company like Uber for these things.
Other companies have already implemented similar loans for workers. One of these firms is Walmart, that is offering payroll advances and loans to cash-strapped employees. The interest rates they offer vary from 6 to 36 percent.
Lorena Gonzalez, an Assemblywoman from California, said that Uber is “feudalism.” Mrs. Gonzalez has also authored the California bill AB5 that reclassifies Uber drivers and contract workers as employees that have more protections.
So… looks like @Uber wants to jump into the space of offering their workers predatory loans now. I guess my Speaker was right “it’s f*cking feudalism. #AB5 pic.twitter.com/BhJvSFMitQ
— Lorena (@LorenaSGonzalez) September 5, 2019
Gonzalez considers that this is a very dangerous and “oppressive” territory in which companies are entering.
However, there is no official confirmation on whether Uber will be releasing this product or not. Definitely, this is a sensitive topic that must be discussed before being implemented. Uber expanded all over the world as a ride-sharing company giving thousands of drivers the possibility to have a job in places where finding one was difficult. It remains to be seen which is going to be the effect over drivers if the new financial services are finally launched.


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- Asia's biggest Internet company posts 45% jump in sales
- Battle with Alibaba, Baidu for content is fueling spending
Tencent Holdings Ltd. posted a 22 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit as Asia’s biggest Internet company increased spending on content to draw users to its new smartphone games and drive ads on social networks.
Net income was 7.16 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in the three months ended December, the Shenzhen-based company said Thursday. While profit was below expectations after Tencent boosted spending on videos, sales climbed to 30.4 billion yuan, beating analyst estimates for 27.8 billion yuan.
Tencent is building its content to attract users while also investing in more on-demand services such as food delivery, areas that form the battleground with Alibaba and Baidu Inc. It’s buying video as well as the rights for anime, comics and novels to convert into mobile games that it promotes through its WeChat and QQ instant message systems.
“The strong revenue growth was driven by much higher than expected mobile game revenue, as well as the advertising revenue. That will make investors positive about the company’s growth potential,” said Li Muzhi, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Arete Research Services LLP. “Their margins exhibited some pressure.”
Cost of revenue increased by 52 percent in the quarter, outpacing the 45 percent increase in sales, as the company paid more for content, while bank-handling fees for customers’ money transfers reached 300 million yuan a month.
“We’ve been spending money to acquire high quality content,” President Martin Lau told reporters. “We really are focusing on building a healthy ecosystem for third party content providers.”
With more than a billion combined users for WeChat and QQ, Tencent is following in the footsteps of Facebook Inc. by experimenting with new ways to make money from its social networks. Rich content is key as Tencent expands its advertising service and inventory, trying to keep mobile users engaged within its social network and content platforms without flooding them with ads.
Tencent last month announced plans for a 0.1 percent transaction fee on WeChat cash withdrawals, as it tries to recover the cost of supporting the popular service called Weixin Pay. The withdrawal fee applies once a user takes more than 1,000 yuan out of their account. Adding online payments and facilitating e-commerce are part of the company’s efforts to make money from China’s 668 million Internet users.
Shares of Tencent rose 0.9 percent to HK$152.30 in Hong Kong before earnings were announced. The stock is little changed this year compared with about a 10 percent drop for New York-listed Alibaba.
Billionaire co-founder Ma Huateng has identified online health, education and the media content industry as potential areas of growth. In a proposal to China’s National People’s Congress this year, Ma suggested that the government allow doctors to freelance, build online personal medical files, and relax digital content policies to help China’s Internet sector prosper.
Among the projects in its pipeline is a workplace messaging app, Lau said. Services like Slack have taken off as businesses look for alternatives to e-mail to encourage employees to communicate and collaborate. Alibaba has also developed a messaging service for enterprise, called DingTalk.
Fourth-quarter revenue from the Value Added Services unit, which includes online games and messaging, rose 35 percent to 23.1 billion yuan. WeChat had 697 million monthly active users and the mobile version of QQ had 641.5 million users at the end of the quarter.


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BRAZIL: GM adding third shift at Gravatai
General Motors said on Sunday it would add a third shift at its Gravataí Industrial Complex, creating 1,450 new jobs at the assembly plant and another 1,000 at supplier plants located at the facility in the south of Brazil. Another 180 jobs will be created in the new powertrain plant in Joinville.
Gravatai builds the Chevrolet Celta and Onix small cars.
“The market success of the all-new Chevrolet Onix, launched last year in October, and the start of production of another new small sedan, to be launched in late February, led us to take the decision,” said GM South America president Jaime Ardila. “We launched nine new Chevrolet models in the last 15 months in Brazil and are poised for growth.”
In 2009, GM announced a US$3bn investment in Brazil. The plan was consolidated last year to develop and launch new Chevrolet products and update and add capacity to its plants.
As part of the plan, GM spent $1bn on the Onix project to develop the new small car family and to expand capacity from 230,000 to 380,000 vehicles per year at Gravataí.
An additional $172 million was spend to build a new engine and cylinder head plant at Joinville in the state of Santa Catarina. Production recently began there.
GM announced the move just after it averted a strike at another Brazilian complex.
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Customers of a number of UK clothing and accessories websites have had their personal information exposed following a security breach at an IT services provider they were sharing.
Thankfully the breach was discovered by a white hat hacker rather than malicious hackers. The white hat accessed a server running a shared database that contained the personal details of the online clothing stores’ customers.
In all, the exposed information contained personal information of approximately 1.4 million users, hashed passwords, password salts, names, email addresses, phone numbers and other data.
There was however no suggestion that payment card information was at risk.
- Customers of brands such as Jaded London, AX Paris, Elle Belle Attire, Perfect Handbags, DLSB and Traffic People were exposed.
- These companies used web development and ecommerce company Fashion Nexus to help them build their online stores. Fashion Nexus, and its sister company White Room Solutions have not said why the database was easily accessed.
- White Room Solutions said the breach was via a site that has now been taken down and the flaw has been resolved.
- The company reportedly informed the affected brands and said that it is leaving it up to them to contact their customers about the data being breached, as well as inform the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Following the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulations in May this year the ICO has toughened powers to take against organisations that breach the privacy of customer data. It will be interesting to see what action they take.
This data exposure illustrates just how important it is to take personal responsibility for safeguarding our sensitive data
You may not have been a user of any of these sites, but security oversights that enable breaches are commonplace. Even today, despite an increased awareness of the need for comprehensive cyber security, many firms make the simplest of mistakes when it comes to securing their systems.
We can take nothing for granted when it comes to protecting our data. Thankfully it was a white hat hacker who discovered the flaw. These people do a sterling job in exposing flaws yet are rarely appreciated. Without them we’d be swimming in a sea of danger whenever our data is collected and stored by companies.


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For the naysayers who pooh-pooh the notion that you shouldn’t go to business school for an MBA to become an entrepreneur, here’s an introduction to John Hanke.
He arrived on the UC-Berkeley campus for its full-time MBA program in 1994 with a goal of launching a company. His MBA essay even centered on the opportunities in interactive gaming and technology. “I wanted to build applications that would deepen people’s involvement in their town or community, to encourage people to actually meet up in the real world,” explains Hanke in a Haas video.
As the CEO of Niantic Labs, the Haas MBA is the driving force behind Pokémon Go, the hottest craze to hit the App Store. Since its release last week,the “augmented reality” game has sent millions of smartphone-toting players to the streets on the hunt for animated Japanese characters that pop up with the help of location services. The download explosion almost crashed Niantic’s servers and got the attention of The New York Times.
PEOPLE PLAYING THE GAME IN STREETS, PARKS, BEACHES–EVEN IN A KAYAK
“There are video games that go viral overnight, causing people to coop themselves up in their homes for days to play,” according to the Times account of the product’s success. But the opposite has happened with Pokémon Go, a free smartphone game that has soared to the top of the download charts: It has sent people into streets and parks, onto beaches and even out to sea in a kayak in the week since it was released.”
Hanke’s Niantic Inc. was put together inside Google and spun out last year. The company’s first augmented reality game, Ingress, is based on Google’s digital mapping service. It was a huge success as well, having been downloaded by some 15 million users. Hanke then partnered with the Pokémon Company to make Pokémon Go. “We expected it to be popular, but we didn’t expect it to be like this,” Hanke told the Times. “We’re just getting our feet underneath us.” In fact, demand for the app has been so great that Niantic had to postpone the game’s introduction in additional countries for a few days so it could accommodate the demand.
For Hanke, his obsession with maps and places occurred early. He was a dreamer of sorts in his home town of Cross Plains, Texas, thinking about faraway places that he would someday like to visit. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas, Austin, and then, after working in foreign affairs for the U.S. government in Washington, D.C., and Myanmar, went to Berkeley for his MBA with the startup dream in his head.
AN ENTREPRENEUR FROM THE GET-GO
As he once told an interviewer, “I grew up in a really isolated town in West Texas, so I kind of grew up daydreaming about other places. And I think a lot of people who grow up in small towns share that feeling of ‘I can’t wait to go out and see the wider world.’ I’ve always carried that with me. And as a parent, the idea of appreciating what’s in front of me is important. And maybe it’s the economy, or maybe it’s just a trend, but people are trying to figure out what can make their communities better, versus, I don’t know, daydreaming about that trip to Europe or going off to Hawaii.”
Hanke generously credits his business school experience as a turning point, giving him both the tools and the confidence to pursue an entrepreneurial route. As an MBA student at Haas in the mid-1990s, he co-founded a company that developed one of the first online games to allow users to play together in a virtual environment. Hanke then co-founded a company called Keyhole, which bridged the gap between geospatial data visualization on high-end computers and the navigation apps we all carry on our pockets. Google acquired Keyhole in 2004 for a reported $35 million, and Hanke stayed on to lead the development of Google Earth, Maps, and StreetView. He then launched Niantic Labs inside Google to focus on next-gen games, and spun it out as a separate company last year soon after Google’s announcement of its restructuring as Alphabet Inc.
“John represents many of the best attributes of entrepreneurship and Berkeley-Haas: Leadership through continuous cycles of innovation, without attitude or bravado, creating value for society and all who collaborate with him,” says Jerome Engel, founding executive director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, who recently wrote a business case that explored Hanke’s decision to separate from Google.
FREE TO PLAY, BUT VIRTUAL THINGS TO BUY
In common with many mobile games, Pokémon Go is free to play but then allows players to buy virtual items for a few dollars to quicken their progress through the game. It’s also possible down the line for Niantic to offer sponsorships to fast-food restaurants, coffee shops and other retailers to motivate users to go into the stores to buy product.
Pokémon go’s success is in some ways the realization of the vision he laid out in his MBA application essay to Haas. It brings the concept mainstream through the appeal of cute animated characters—Pokémon translates as “pocket monster”—beloved by those who came of age playing the video games and trading cards in the late 1990s.
“It gives people an excuse to meet other real people. It’s incredibly rewarding for me to see these people coming together and to see the happiness, the joy that people are getting from exercising, exploring their city, and making new friends,” Hanke told Haas.


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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Some Uber riders say they are being scammed by drivers who claim the passenger got sick while on their ride.
It's being called "vomit fraud" and the Better Business Bureau has received complaints across the country.
These Uber customers say they were charged a cleaning fee after riding in an Uber. The fees range from $1500-$200 for vomiting in the vehicle.
"These Uber drivers are gaming the system, looking to make a quick buck by falsely claiming a rider had puked in their car,” said John Masterson, Marketing Director with BBB of West Michigan.
In at least one case, a rider in New York says the driver submitted a photo to Uber and charged her a $200 cleaning fee. "So they were submitted with an ambiguous looking pic of vomit in a car."
Another passenger, Trevor Bushnell of Grand Rapids, told the BBB he was sent a cleaning bill. Trevor says the picture of a stain the driver submitted was from rain. He tried to dispute it but says Uber wouldn't refund the money.
"They have an “F” rating due to a number of complaints. In this case, Uber does not respond to complaints through BBB."
Uber did respond to our request for comment. A spokesperson said, "Participating in fraudulent activity of any kind is a clear violation of our Community Guidelines. We are constantly evaluating our processes and technology related to these claims and will take appropriate action whenever fraud may be detected."
Uber went on to say that the vast majority of cleaning fee reports are legitimately the result of someone making a mess in the car. If it is a confirmed case of fraud, Uber says it will remove the driver from the app.
The BBB of Western Michigan suggests checking your credit card following an Uber ride, reading the reviews about a driver before accepting his/her service, and dispute any wrongful charges.


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Jun 8, 2023
Dan Ruff becomes CEO of Belmond, a luxury hotel brand owned by LVMH Group.
Belmond, a luxury hotel brand under the French luxury goods giant LVMH Group, has appointed Dan Ruff as CEO, succeeding Roeland Vos, effective July 1.
Dan Ruff has served as Belmond's chief operating officer since 2018. Prior to that, Dan Ruff held senior positions at Wyndham Hotel Group and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, covering operations, asset management, and mergers and acquisitions functions.
In his new role, he will oversee luxury properties including the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, the Cipriani Hotel in Venice, and the historic Venice Simplon-Orient-Express train. He will report to Stéphane Rinderknech, who is not only CEO of the group's hospitality business, LVMH Hospitality Excellence, but also chairman and CEO of LVMH's beauty division.
Stéphane Rinderknech expressed his gratitude to Roeland Vos in an internal memo, saying that Dan Ruff, who has more than 20 years experience in the hotel industry, has a deep accumulation of operational, commercial, and asset management expertise. "Since joining Belmond five years ago, he has demonstrated a remarkable ability to lead all property operations through the shockwaves of the COVID-19 pandemic and the incredible turnaround from 2021. There is no doubt that he will be a great asset in the pursuit of Belmond's successful journey to new level."


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CEO of Lolli Alex Adelman refuted Alibaba’s denial of partnership with Lolli. In an email to Cointelegraph on Nov 17, Adelman maintained that Lolli did have a partnership with the Alibaba Group, saying:
“We’ve been partnered with Alibaba Group since May through AliExpress. We have driven AliExpress significant revenue and distributed bitcoin rewards to our users.”
A partnership rejected
It was previously reported that Lolli introduced an affiliate partnership with Alibaba enabling its shoppers to earn 5% back in Bitcoin on Singles’ Day.
Subsequently, Alibaba denied any such partnership. A representative from Alibaba told CoinDesk that Lolli “never had the right to claim a partnership with Alibaba.com or imply one with Alibaba Group.”
It is possible that Alibaba reacted so strongly to the suggestion of the partnership after the Singles’ Day marketing campaign got a little too popular, with some outlets equating it with Alibaba accepting Bitcoin. Given the Chinese government’s hostile attitude towards Bitcoin, Alibaba may have been keen to avoid such associations.
Adelman maintains that this was unfair to Lolli. “Lolli and the agency representing Alibaba.com mutually agreed to launch this partnership in conjunction with Singles’ Day,” he told Cointelegraph, adding:
“Alibaba.com trialed our services for 24 hours and decided to deactivate the partnership without cause — breaking its contract […] The agency representing Alibaba.com approved a contractual agreement on behalf of Alibaba.com that included the promotion of Alibaba.com, the use of its brand, email marketing, and sharing on social media and various channels. There was no malintent on our end to misrepresent Alibaba.”
Adelman continued to say that allowing Alibaba to deny the partnership would be “misleading and defames our brand when we did nothing wrong and abided by everything we contractually agreed upon with them.”
He concluded by saying that although there was “miscommunication on Alibaba’s end and while that’s unfortunate, we look forward to the possibility of working with Alibaba.com again in the future.”
Alibaba is not a fan of Bitcoin
The Chinese retail giant has not been friendly to Bitcoin to date. In October, Alibaba’s digital payment arm Alipay reiterated its negative stance toward Bitcoin, confirming that it will be banning all transactions identified as connected to Bitcoin. Alipay wrote:
“If any transactions are identified as being related to bitcoin or other virtual currencies, @Alipay immediately stops the relevant payment services.”


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Toyota Recalls 242,000 vehicles around the world
Toyota Prius 1.9 million cars Recalled
Toyota Canada Recalls icts Tacoma truck
Japanese auto giant Toyota Announced Wednesday recalling about 242,000 Prius and Lexus hybrid vehicles Because of a problem with the brake system.
The recall affects about 233,000 Prius vehicles built Between March and October 2009 and 9000 Lexus HS250h model assembled about Between June and October 2009.
The Prius vehicles Were Concerned sold around the world while Lexus sedans Were sold in the United States and Japan.
Of the total, 91,000 vehicles sold in North America and 30,000 in Europe Were.
The automaker says vibration That Could damage the vehicle brakes, Slowing the response time. The company Said They received Dozens of complaints, the goal problem Would not Because accidents or injury.
The reputation of Toyota HAD beens Incorrectly set by Many reminders in 2009 and 2010, Including problems brakes, accelerators and carpets.